Tramping Through The Ether

I’m on the hunt, digging around, stuffing my pockets – but can’t unearth that one big blog-worthy story.  Pixels gathered:

Why are baby boomers leading the entrepreneurial movement?
… Amid economic and social changes, the 55- to 64-year-old age group has had the largest increase in entrepreneurial activity over the last decade.

I’ve heard something about this…

Entrepreneurs & Baby Boomers
All of a sudden every other news article about Baby Boomers is focused on business and entrepreneurs.

17 September 2009
Late Bloomer Boomers
This isn’t like retired people taking on hobbies. The Late Bloomer Boomer Movement is going full blast, and there’s no stopping it. The magic equation: Thirty-odd years of experience plus not feeling old and being relatively healthy plus knowing you have another quarter-century of productivity in you equals . . . Well, we’ll see.

Dick Stroud visits Arjan in't Veld and De Youngsters.  Amazing stuff, a must-click via Google Translate:

Portraits

Students study baby boomer consumers
Marketing and gerontology graduate students are researching ways to reach the baby boomer generation as a consumer group, as part of a project allowing them to apply acquired skills and build upon industry skills.

Perhaps the curriculum should include a book recommended as a Classroom Resource by The Advertising Educational Foundation. 

News Flash:

Baby Boomers Downsizing Homes, Upgrading Options
The baby boomer generation has made it clear they are not ready to retire. For that reason home builders, designers and architects are continuously modifying floor plans to meet their demands.

Hmmm.  Sounds familiar:

Selling Universal Design To Baby Boomers/Aging In Place (PDF) © 2005, 2007

Aging In Place & Universal Design Posts

 

That’s it.  I’m out of pixels. Unless you want to play some brain games.

Mature Marketing Association

It’s not all austerity and economic upheaval across the pond.  There are some folks promoting optimistic, practical approaches for sparking business growth:

The Mature Marketing Association
We believe  that Europe's ageing population presents a unique set of marketing challenges and  opportunities which, if addressed correctly, will benefit both business and consumer.

Influencing the formation of MMA was The New Millennium Tales – a collection of boisterous, savvy narratives and essays corralled by Kevin Lavery.  The title is on The Advertising Educational Foundation’s ‘Must Read’ List.

Many marketing/advertising outfits in the U.S. and around the world are MMA International Partners. 

Bookmark the MMA web site.

Official Launch: June (2013)

Donna Highfill: Making Incontinence Cool

Over on Huffington, Donna Highfill pens a funny, trenchant piece about advertising/marketing incontinence products:

Making Incontinence Cool
… Let's face it, if a person in their golden years doubles over in a public place and announces, I'm wetting my pants, most people vacate the area as quickly as possible. If we have wet marks on the back of our pants like that toddler, nobody smiles and says, Aw, bless his heart.

I toss up a comment with a link to a short presentation from 2012: 

I don't need it, but I'll try it on for charity.

Donna Highfill responds.

Make sure to zip through all the comments trailing the article.  Ms. Highfill certainly hits a nerve.

More Huff Posts from Donna Highfill.

My post this week was written by The Ad Contrarian.

I was just about to put paws to keyboard and expose this exposé:

IAB to Rally Industry Against Bogus Publishers and Bots
By Mike Shields
The Interactive Advertising Bureau will take on the evil robots, shysters and shady characters who are stealing millions from advertisers—before the medium's reputation takes any more of a beating…

If you spend enough time in the murky world of ad exchanges, ad tech middlemen and real-time bidding software, you might come away wondering why any major brand even bothers with online advertising.

Not only are banners dull and clickthrough rates low, but all the technology flooding the industry promising perfect targeting perfection can't even deliver real human audiences...

Then I would’ve added it here:

The Social Media - WOMM - Web Advertising Posts 

But the intrepid Ad Contrarian beat me to it:

April 29, 2013
Online Advertisers Getting Hosed
Click-through rates are abysmal. The odds of breaking through on YouTube are in the million-to-one range. Facebook is a big fat turd that seems to have a new ad scheme every week. QR codes are a cruel joke. Content and social media are sounding more like religion, and less like business.

And now we're starting to get a peek at massive advertising frauds being perpetrated on the web.

Oh, well. I guess I’ll do some work or something.

We’re hot again.

For almost a month I’ve been on a Large Org Rampage, ignoring all late-breaking stories.  My news aggregator is clogged.  It needs a cleansing:

We’re hot again, wanted again, as we are every year or so for a brief time until everybody who wants us realizes they have no idea how to get our attention.

Dentists want us.

The Clergy wants us.

Book Publishers want us.

Even Hollywood wants us.

And to no one’s surprise, marketers and advertisers want us.  Recent headlines, with no links because it’s all been said before so why waste your time:

Advertising to the over 40s – the new rules of engagement

New Research Reveals Misconceptions of Baby Boomer Marketing

Marketing to Boomers Crucial to Bottom Line

Baby Boom Your Branding Strategy

Advertisers overlooking cashed-up Boomers

People are spending — just look at the Boomers

Marketing to Baby Boomers: A [Very] Valuable Demographic

I feel like Rip Van Winkle – except upon awakening nothing has changed – and that’s even more shocking….

One gold nugget from the sift:

Why You Should Remodel to 'Age in Place' Now
Safety and style should go hand in hand when making home modifications
By Louis Tenenbaum
… In my 35 years as a professional home remodeler, I've found that if I get clients to fold the health and safety solutions into the more enjoyable task of remodeling to suit their changing tastes, they are not only more responsive, but they're also excited and enthusiastic.

And thanks to two folks for mentioning me in their posts/articles:

Baby Boomer Bashing: I just don’t get it.
by Erin Read Ruddick

BOOMHER: A is for….
By Nancy Hill